A Brief Introduction to Fly Fishing History

You may have caught a glimpse of fly fishing on sports or outdoor channels – with fishermen standing knee- or waist- deep in a body of water, gracefully casting out a line like a slow whip over the water’s surface to catch fish. Fly fishing is a very specific type of fishing, in which the fisherman, also referred to as an angler, casts a line with a fake fly on the end, in hopes he can bait the fish with the decoy insect hovering just above the water’s surface. Though it has become popular in the United States in the past hundred years or so, fly fishing history actually goes back much further.

While there is some debate among scholars as to who first mentioned fly fishing in the annals of history, it was most certainly the ancient Romans who first recorded accounts of fishermen creating fake flies to lure fish. Claudius Aelianus wrote in the 2nd century about Macedonians who used a snared fish with phony flies made from red wool and feathers. While many consider Claudius Aelianus the first to write about fly fishing, William Radcliffe wrote in his 1921 book "Fishing from the Earliest Times" that it was Marcus Valerius Martialis, born roughly 200 years before Claudius Aelianus, who first made mention of fly fishing.

Regardless of who in ancient fly fishing history first wrote about the practice, it became a popular fishing method in England and Scotland by the Fifteenth Century, and began to take the form of the sport as we know it today. The earliest detailed record of the practice is found in the 1946 manuscript, "The Book of St. Albans," in "The Treatyse on Fysshynge with an Angle" by Dame Juliana Berners. Dame Berners’ written account described methods for making flies, based on the time of year, as well as the construction of rods and the making of hooks for fly fishing.

In the 1800s fly fishing became very popular in England, including the forming of fly fishing clubs. Naturally, such interest resulted in many more books being written on the subject, including "The Way of a Trout with a Fly" by George E.M. Skues and W.C. Stewart’s "The Practical Angler." In the late 1800s American anglers in the Catskill Mountains of New York began popularizing fly fishing techniques in the United States. In the 20th Century, America has seen surges of interest in fly fishing in the 1920s and the 1950s.

Over time, particularly in the 1800s, numerous innovations and changes were made to the sport of fly fishing. Bamboo rods began to be used which were more flexible than the previously used greenheart rods, giving greater flexibility to the fly fishing rod. Silk lines began to be adopted over horse-hair lines. Synthetic materials allowed for more customized features, such as floating or sinking fly fishing lines, carbon rods, and a wide variety of colors, shapes, sizes, and looks for fly fishing artificial flies.

Great innovators of fly fishing history include Lee Wulff, who is credited with the fly reel and the fly fishing vest. His "Royal Wulff" is still considered to be a very popular and effective artificial fly. Prestion J Jennings’ 1935 "A Book of Trout Flies" is considered to be the first use of etymology, the study of insects, by a fly fishing writer. Vincent C. Mariano was the author of "A Modern Dry Fly Code," based on his experiences on creeks in Pennsylvania. Mariano’s book considered one of the most influential books in American fly fishing history.

Changes, some minor, and some major, throughout fly fishing history has resulted in the sport as we know it today.